Friday, April 30, 2010

Rape culture is a term used within women's studies and feminism, describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence (usually against women) are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence. (Wikipedia)

In my approach to the study of the mentality behind claims of rape culture, Wikipedia's entry is a good place to start. The term, "within women's studies and feminism," effectively eliminates most everyone else; i.e., you don't often hear normal folks talking about rape culture.

At least part of the mentality you find "within women's studies and feminism" is that of victimhood. Let me give you an example.

A couple of years ago, somebody posted in a chat group a link to an article titled "Misogyny, the Hatred of Women, Is Pervasive in US" by David Whitfield. Originally published in The Olympian, which appears to be the daily newspaper of record for Olympia, Washington, the article had been reprinted in an ultra-leftist e-zine, truthout.

If you can get past the breathtaking effrontery of the title (American women enjoy perhaps the cushiest female existence on the planet, created and supported almost exclusively by men), the article is still posted at truthout, in all its emotionally manipulative glory, for those who want to slog through it.

A couple of things you notice right away when reading this sort of propaganda. One, there's no balance (not a syllable about the 60/40 female-to-male ratio on college campuses; not a word about boys victimized by the educational system; no acknowledgment that divorce and child custody laws are slanted in favor of women; no mention of men dying earlier). Two, what happens to women is overwhelmingly bad (abused by boyfriends or husbands, tied down with children during their most productive years, denied advancement in their jobs and, of course, raped).

In other words, women are victims; men cannot be victims because they are victimizers. These are prerequisites for belief that rape culture exists.

Now. A disclaimer (not needed for thinking folks, just for the kneejerk emotionalists): Acknowledging that most American women enjoy the highest quality of life in the world does not negate the reality that some of them suffer negatives in their lives (as do many men). Similarly, acknowledging that rape exits doesn't negate the reality that false rape accusations occur -- except, perhaps, in the minds of those who accept the notion that rape culture exists, and we live in it.

Rape culture is a term used within women's studies and feminism, describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence (usually against women) are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence. (Wikipedia)

In my approach to the study of the mentality behind claims of rape culture, Wikipedia's entry is a good place to start. The term, "within women's studies and feminism," effectively eliminates most everyone else; i.e., you don't often hear normal folks talking about rape culture.

At least part of the mentality you find "within women's studies and feminism" is that of victimhood. Let me give you an example.

A couple of years ago, somebody posted in a chat group a link to an article titled "Misogyny, the Hatred of Women, Is Pervasive in US" by David Whitfield. Originally published in The Olympian, which appears to be the daily newspaper of record for Olympia, Washington, the article had been reprinted in an ultra-leftist e-zine, truthout.

If you can get past the breathtaking effrontery of the title (American women enjoy perhaps the cushiest female existence on the planet, created and supported almost exclusively by men), the article is still posted at truthout, in all its emotionally manipulative glory, for those who want to slog through it.

A couple of things you notice right away when reading this sort of propaganda. One, there's no balance (not a syllable about the 60/40 female-to-male ratio on college campuses; not a word about boys victimized by the educational system; no acknowledgment that divorce and child custody laws are slanted in favor of women; no mention of men dying earlier). Two, what happens to women is overwhelmingly bad (abused by boyfriends or husbands, tied down with children during their most productive years, denied advancement in their jobs and, of course, raped).

In other words, women are victims; men cannot be victims because they are victimizers. These are prerequisites for belief that rape culture exists.

Now. A disclaimer (not needed for thinking folks, just for the kneejerk emotionalists): Acknowledging that most American women enjoy the highest quality of life in the world does not negate the reality that some of them suffer negatives in their lives (as do many men). Similarly, acknowledging that rape exits doesn't negate the reality that false rape accusations occur -- except, perhaps, in the minds of those who accept the notion that rape culture exists, and we live in it.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Shenequa Goodwin, of Greenville, was arrested early Sunday morning after police said she filed a false sexual assault report.

The police report states Goodwin, 26, called police and reported that after pulling into a gas station she was grabbed and forced into a vehicle.

Goodwin told police she was driven to a house in a nearby neighborhood and sexually assaulted by two men while in the driveway.

Goodwin was intoxicated when she reported teh assault and a written statement could not be taken, the report states.

A weekend duty detective met the officer taking the report and interviewed Goodwin at her home on S. Calhoun Street. During the lengthy interview, the report states Goodwin made numerous conflicting statements.

Finally, Goodwin admitted that she was intoxicated and was not assaulted as she originally reported police said.

She told officers she was engaged to be married and felt ashamed about the incident, so she reported she'd been raped, police siad.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Shenequa Goodwin, of Greenville, was arrested early Sunday morning after police said she filed a false sexual assault report.

The police report states Goodwin, 26, called police and reported that after pulling into a gas station she was grabbed and forced into a vehicle.

Goodwin told police she was driven to a house in a nearby neighborhood and sexually assaulted by two men while in the driveway.

Goodwin was intoxicated when she reported teh assault and a written statement could not be taken, the report states.

A weekend duty detective met the officer taking the report and interviewed Goodwin at her home on S. Calhoun Street. During the lengthy interview, the report states Goodwin made numerous conflicting statements.

Finally, Goodwin admitted that she was intoxicated and was not assaulted as she originally reported police said.

She told officers she was engaged to be married and felt ashamed about the incident, so she reported she'd been raped, police siad.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

In a video message to voters for the November mid-term election, President Obama called on certain groups to help the Democratic Party in 2010, and he left out white males: "It will be up to each of you," the President said, "to make sure that the young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008, stand together once again. It will be up to each of you to keep our nation moving forward."

Can this mean that men, at least white men above a certain age, apparently have no issues of their own worthy of the White House's attention, even though men lead women in virtually every social pathology known to humanity? Sadly, it isn't surprising at all. It's politics. The Atlantic recently studied the Obama coalition. Among other things, it found the following: "Single women voted by better than two to one for Obama over McCain (70-29 percent). In a post-election analysis, the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosser concluded: 'Barack Obama would have lost the women’s vote and the 2008 election if it were not for the contribution of the unmarried woman. All told, Obama split men 49-48 percent, but lost married women 47-50 percent. Unmarried women, however, delivered 70 percent of their vote to the Democratic candidate, up from 62 percent in 2004." Obama's declared indifference to men is, of course, merely the latest, but among the more overt, examples of a corrosive gender divisive group identity politics that has been creeping into our culture for several decades. This mentality elevates the interests of self-anointed victim groups above the common good. Although it isn't confined to the Democratic Party, it seems most comfortable there. (And by the way, black men, too, have reason not to feel especially allied with Obama. In his famous "Father's Day" speech two years ago, primarily directed to black men, he said that too many fathers "have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.")

For a long time, Americans were proud to live in a melting pot. Each immigrant group that came to our shores was assimilated into the grand American stew, adding a new flavor with each addition. To America's great shame, one group was not permitted to join in the stew. The civil rights movement was the natural, and proper, response to a culture that hung out a sign on the American Dream that read "Blacks need not apply." Blacks, who by any measure, were oppressed and marginalized, needed to be empowered. (I will note as an aside that starting in the 1960s, well-intentioned social engineers unwittingly helped turn the inner city into a cistern of dependency and hopelessness by, among other things, paying women to kick fathers out of the house -- remember Aid to Families with Dependent Children's old "Man out of the house" rule? The result? In 1960, 22 percent of children in the inner city were born into fatherless homes; today, that number is 70 percent. What happened? Did the men develop a "deadbeat" gene in that time? Of course not. But know this: there was an unmistakable correlation between the absence of dads and the rise of crime, drug use, early pregnancy, poor educational performance, abject poverty, and pretty much every other bad thing. By any measure, the "War on Poverty" has been a failure, and much of it has to do with the alienation of men.)

But by the late 60s, something other-worldly occurred. Other groups decided that they, too, wanted to stake a claim to the victimhood that uniquely marked the black experience, even though they were neither black nor victims. Most notably, feminists balked at the gender roles that women, mostly, have assigned to women and men since the beginning of time. Feminism, deigning to speak for all women even though few women deigned to identify with it, arrogated unto itself the right to construct a self-schema for all women that insisted their entire gender was marginalized and oppressed by the dominant culture, which they called "patriarchy," a code word for "anything with a penis." Extreme feminists rejected as "misogyny" even the suggestion that such a characterization was too all-sweeping, all too lacking in nuance, all too simplistic to the point of childishness. And progressive, guilt-ridden white men, told they could not possibly understand women's experience, bought into it. So when it came to gender, the American ideal of equal opportunity was scrapped in favor of equal outcomes, but only when skewing the outcomes favors women.

When the dust had lifted the new gender landscape revealed itself: the group that controls most of America's wealth, that controls the ballot box, that is awarded the vast majority of college degrees, that trumps men in virtually every measure of educational achievement, that is assured equal opportunity in every sphere of American life and is provided financial assistance in many simply because of its gender, that maintains a death grip on control of the domestic sphere, including children and family law courts, that earns more than its same age male peers in large urban areas until its members drop out and have children, and that lives significantly longer than men -- that group -- insists it is marginalized, oppressed, and not regarded as equal human beings. It supports this insistence with vapid epiphanies like the gender wage gap (even though it has been fairly established that the gap is not due to discrimination); with mantras like "women do more housework" (even though men work more outside the home to even things out) and "men monopolize positions of power" (which is largely due to choices women make, and not mentioned is that men also make up the vast majority of citizens at the bottom of society, living on the streets -- but that couldn't possibly be a gender issue, right?).

They thought they could somehow empower people who didn't need empowering by declaring them powerless. But the "equality" manufactured by insisting that women are powerless -- by mandating equal outcomes at the expense of equal opportunity, by insisting that young women can get drunk and engage in sex play but still have no free moral agency, by denigrating the other group as oppressors -- is the cubic zirconia of equality, a sham, a garden variety hoax. The more we "empower" women by heaping artificial advantages and privileges on them and by excusing them from accountability for their actions, the more we reinforce the notion that women need special treatment because women really aren't equal. The more that women act like victims, the more they becomevictims.

Studies on diversity training show that it is ineffective at getting companies to hire and promote women and minorities. Worse: ". . . those that were mandatory or discussed lawsuits - the vast majority of the programs the researchers examined - slightly reduced the number of women and minorities in management."

Why? "Required training and legalistic training both make people resentful, the authors suggest, and likely to rebel against what they’ve heard."

Instead of a melting pot, we have a victim group mentality. Instead of assimilation, we have gender division. Instead of equal opportunity, we have equal outcomes.

All of this is common sense. When the coach lets his son play ahead of kids more deserving, the other kids resent the coach's son and will never accept him.

But, you see, feminism doesn't really care if the women it "empowers" will ever be accepted. Their plan all along has been to institutionalize victimization, and they've done a damn good job of it.

The only way to empower people is to treat them like everyone else. The only way to empower women is to treat them like men -- as responsible adults endowed with equal opportunities and the full capacity to live with the consequences of the decisions they make.

I've used this analogy before: gender relations in the 21st Century resemble my local golf course where the women's tee box is a lot closer to the hole than the men's. I stumbled across a report of a study that led me to conclude that the women's tee isn't just a metaphor, it actually highlights the very truths I'm trying to get across. "On average, women's tee boxes are about 50 yards closer to the hole than men's. The greater the distance between tee boxes, the study finds, the fewer women will there be in management and marketing in that geographic locale and the less money will those women make."

Why is this? For one, the physical separation doesn't allow women to network. But just as important: "Greater distances . . . 'may portray a negative belief about the golfing abilities of women -- and perhaps by extension negative beliefs about other abilities. Significant differences in tee placements between men and women may reinforce biases against women, not just in physical terms but also intellectual terms.'"

In short, the bigger the "victim" sign a woman wears around her neck, the more special advantages heaped upon her just because she's a woman, the less chance that she will be accepted as an equal. The less chance she will . . . assimilate.

That melting pot doesn't sound like such a bad idea, does it?

If women want true equality and not just the pretense of it, they need to line up with the guys at the men's tee, join in the sometimes raunchy language without being "offended" or filing a discrimination suit, and take their best swings. On average, they probably won't hit it as far as the guys, but you know what? They'll be "one of the boys." And they might just end up running the company someday without people resenting them.

That's if they want real equality and not just the pretense of it. Lots of women want the former; most women's groups are content with the latter.

In a video message to voters for the November mid-term election, President Obama called on certain groups to help the Democratic Party in 2010, and he left out white males: "It will be up to each of you," the President said, "to make sure that the young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008, stand together once again. It will be up to each of you to keep our nation moving forward."

Can this mean that men, at least white men above a certain age, apparently have no issues of their own worthy of the White House's attention, even though men lead women in virtually every social pathology known to humanity? Sadly, it isn't surprising at all. It's politics. The Atlantic recently studied the Obama coalition. Among other things, it found the following: "Single women voted by better than two to one for Obama over McCain (70-29 percent). In a post-election analysis, the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosser concluded: 'Barack Obama would have lost the women’s vote and the 2008 election if it were not for the contribution of the unmarried woman. All told, Obama split men 49-48 percent, but lost married women 47-50 percent. Unmarried women, however, delivered 70 percent of their vote to the Democratic candidate, up from 62 percent in 2004."

Grand Rapids -- Julie Kathleen Rau, a 25-year-old woman who admitted she falsely claimed she was raped by a maintenance worker at her Plainfield Township apartment complex, faces a maximum of four years in prison after pleading guilty last week to false report of a felony.

She will be sentenced May 19.

In July, Rau told police and unknown man came to her Hidden Valley Town Home apartment in the 4100 block of Spruce Hollow Drive NE and told her he was a drywall maintenance worker, according to court records. She siad she let the suspect into the home, where he sexually assaulted her, police said.

When Kent County Sheriff's deputies interviewed her the next day, Rau admitted fabricating the story, police siad. Rau underwent a psychiatric exam which found her competent to stand trial.

She is scheduled to be sentenced by Kent County Circuit Judge George Buth.

Grand Rapids -- Julie Kathleen Rau, a 25-year-old woman who admitted she falsely claimed she was raped by a maintenance worker at her Plainfield Township apartment complex, faces a maximum of four years in prison after pleading guilty last week to false report of a felony.

She will be sentenced May 19.

In July, Rau told police and unknown man came to her Hidden Valley Town Home apartment in the 4100 block of Spruce Hollow Drive NE and told her he was a drywall maintenance worker, according to court records. She siad she let the suspect into the home, where he sexually assaulted her, police said.

When Kent County Sheriff's deputies interviewed her the next day, Rau admitted fabricating the story, police siad. Rau underwent a psychiatric exam which found her competent to stand trial.

She is scheduled to be sentenced by Kent County Circuit Judge George Buth.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

COMMENT: The news report below chronicles a textbook false rape claim. Two women were willing to destroy the life of a cab driver with a rape lie because they didn't want to pay a fare (cab drivers are among the classes of citizens most at risk for false rape claims -- see here). At least one of the women, Charlene Beal, pictured here, physically attacked him and damaged his cab. Then the women accused him of rape. Then he was jailed -- until police discovered he was innocent (you see, you must be found "innocent" before the police will free you after two drunken women accuse you of rape). The court sentenced the women to eleven months in jail. The judge told the women that they did a wicked thing, and that their lie was "a crime against women in general."

In short, this is a garden variety false rape claim case. The life of a hapless male is deemed less worthy than the price of a cab ride (we've actually seen worse on this site). The male is arrested on the say-so of drunken women and retained until his innocence is proved (for what other class of citizens do we routinely hand the power to deprive another class of citizens of their liberty?). The rape lie was called a lie against women in general, and that is correct. But the cab driver was the primary victim. Moreover, false rape claims, are crimes against males in general, not just because of the lie but because the lie is too readily believed by law enforcement and then not punished adequately when its falsity is exposed. (If you are going to accept the word of a lone accuser and deprive a male of his liberty, then if the accuser turns out to be a liar, you'd damn well better be prepared to hold her accountable. We rarely do.)

In short, just another day in our false rape society. Here is the news story:

COMMENT: The news report below chronicles a textbook false rape claim. Two women were willing to destroy the life of a cab driver with a rape lie because they didn't want to pay a fare (cab drivers are among the classes of citizens most at risk for false rape claims -- see here). At least one of the women, Charlene Beal, pictured here, physically attacked him and damaged his cab. Then the women accused him of rape. Then he was jailed -- until police discovered he was innocent (you see, you must be found "innocent" before the police will free you after two drunken women accuse you of rape). The court sentenced the women to eleven months in jail. The judge told the women that they did a wicked thing, and that their lie was "a crime against women in general."

In short, this is a garden variety false rape claim case. The life of a hapless male is deemed less worthy than the price of a cab ride (we've actually seen worse on this site). The male is arrested on the say-so of drunken women and retained until his innocence is proved (for what other class of citizens do we routinely hand the power to deprive another class of citizens of their liberty?). The rape lie was called a lie against women in general, and that is correct. But the cab driver was the primary victim. Moreover, false rape claims, are crimes against males in general, not just because of the lie but because the lie is too readily believed by law enforcement and then not punished adequately when its falsity is exposed. (If you are going to accept the word of a lone accuser and deprive a male of his liberty, then if the accuser turns out to be a liar, you'd damn well better be prepared to hold her accountable. We rarely do.)

In short, just another day in our false rape society. Here is the news story:

Her identity is protected (unlike any number of men who are named in stories based on nothing more than a lone accusation of a rape by a woman). And there is no indication that she will be charged for what police have determined is a crime.

Her identity is protected (unlike any number of men who are named in stories based on nothing more than a lone accusation of a rape by a woman). And there is no indication that she will be charged for what police have determined is a crime.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

"I thought you might find this of mild interest because it points up one of your blog's themes. It's a very small thing, and when it happened, it seemed so natural that I gave it no thought. But now that I think about it, it says a lot (too much) about where we are as a culture.

"My company was contacted by a high school senior -- a girl -- who is working on a project. She asked if she could interview a particular middle-aged man who works for me, who is an expert in the field she's writing about. My immediate reaction was that if this interview was to occur face-to-face, for my employee's own protection, he would need a witness, preferably a female employee of the company. My female assistant agreed with me, and another woman who works for us volunteered to sit in. When we told the employee about the girl's request, he was squeamish about meeting her at all and suggested a phone interview so that, he said, 'no one can accuse me of anything.' I should add that this man is a perfectly well-adjusted father who has raised a fine son, and that he has a stellar track record of community service. He is a long-time elder in his church, and has never been accused of anything, that I know of.

"Of course, the sole reason we were all concerned about his being falsely accused was because he is male. We would not have had this concern if he was a she.

"Only later did it dawn upon me how unfair it is that good men must slink through life concerned about being falsely accused. Isn't it sad that everyone in my office had the same reaction? And isn't it even more sad that we didn't think there was anything unusual about that reaction? It's become standard operating procedure."

"I thought you might find this of mild interest because it points up one of your blog's themes. It's a very small thing, and when it happened, it seemed so natural that I gave it no thought. But now that I think about it, it says a lot (too much) about where we are as a culture.

"My company was contacted by a high school senior -- a girl -- who is working on a project. She asked if she could interview a particular middle-aged man who works for me, who is an expert in the field she's writing about. My immediate reaction was that if this interview was to occur face-to-face, for my employee's own protection, he would need a witness, preferably a female employee of the company. My female assistant agreed with me, and another woman who works for us volunteered to sit in. When we told the employee about the girl's request, he was squeamish about meeting her at all and suggested a phone interview so that, he said, 'no one can accuse me of anything.' I should add that this man is a perfectly well-adjusted father who has raised a fine son, and that he has a stellar track record of community service. He is a long-time elder in his church, and has never been accused of anything, that I know of.

"Of course, the sole reason we were all concerned about his being falsely accused was because he is male. We would not have had this concern if he was a she.

"Only later did it dawn upon me how unfair it is that good men must slink through life concerned about being falsely accused. Isn't it sad that everyone in my office had the same reaction? And isn't it even more sad that we didn't think there was anything unusual about that reaction? It's become standard operating procedure."

LANDER -- Fremont County authorities say a 25-year-old Casper woman admitted to lying about a rape claim in order to get out of a drunk-driving charge.

The Fremont County sheriff's office says Helen Witt came clean after investigators couldn't make her story from last summer match up.

Witt originally told law enforcement she was raped by two men on the Fourth of July in Boysen State Park. She said the two men drug her from her car and sexually assaulted her on a dirt road near the Cottonwood Bay area of the park.

She also claimed that her attackers ran her over with their white Cadillac Escalade, and she only escaped because she was able to hitch a ride with a passing motorist.

In addition to drunk driving, Witt was originally charged with driving on a suspended license and reckless driving.

The sheriff's office said the driving on a suspended license charge stuck, even though charges for drunk and reckless driving were dismissed. Witt has now been charged with filing a false report.

Authorities say Witt has apologized for filing the false report.

Investigators spent hours on the case involving several agencies in addition to the sheriff's office: the Boysen State Park Rangers, the Fremont County Ambulance Service and the Fremont County attorney’s office.

LANDER -- Fremont County authorities say a 25-year-old Casper woman admitted to lying about a rape claim in order to get out of a drunk-driving charge.

The Fremont County sheriff's office says Helen Witt came clean after investigators couldn't make her story from last summer match up.

Witt originally told law enforcement she was raped by two men on the Fourth of July in Boysen State Park. She said the two men drug her from her car and sexually assaulted her on a dirt road near the Cottonwood Bay area of the park.

She also claimed that her attackers ran her over with their white Cadillac Escalade, and she only escaped because she was able to hitch a ride with a passing motorist.

In addition to drunk driving, Witt was originally charged with driving on a suspended license and reckless driving.

The sheriff's office said the driving on a suspended license charge stuck, even though charges for drunk and reckless driving were dismissed. Witt has now been charged with filing a false report.

Authorities say Witt has apologized for filing the false report.

Investigators spent hours on the case involving several agencies in addition to the sheriff's office: the Boysen State Park Rangers, the Fremont County Ambulance Service and the Fremont County attorney’s office.

Monday, April 26, 2010

COMMENT: The following article is from an extreme feminist perspective. It is premised on a worldview I simply cannot agree with: that rape is rampant. That likely will prompt many readers here to dismiss this article out of hand. But it does contain an underlying idea that would serve the interests of the the falsely accused: the author suggests that feminists need to stop looking to the criminal justice system to fight purported date-rape. The professor seems to believe that culturally-learned masculine behavior is responsible for sexually oppressing women, a worldview that is more than a little problematic, and that this socially accepted attitude creates some murky date-rape situations that courts are ill-equipped to handle. I can agree with the murky/ill equipped aspect, but I'd respectfully suggest that gender oppression isn't at the root of it. It seems to be something as simple as guys wanting sex more than women (please don't argue with me on that, it would insult my intelligence), and women being told they can only be empowered when they pretend to want what the guys really do want. This, too often, leads to women's regret, and anger, and feeling used after-the-fact.

But I can find common ground with the professor: if there is to be a cultural debate about what is appropriate sexual behavior, the courts aren't advancing it -- but not for the reasons the professor thinks. From my perspective, the courts are tyrannizing innocent men in the name of protecting women, which is absurd, and wrong, and immoral, at the same time.

A battle against rape has been a big part of America's 30-year war on crime, as feminists and equal rights advocates pushed for prosecution of accused rapists and new laws to protect victims, with the expectation that vigorous enforcement would reduce sexual assault.

But University of Iowa law professor AyaGruber (left) says those efforts have failed and feminism should now distance itself from a criminal justice system she believes is too influenced by the cultural status quo to produce social justice.

"Feminists have reached the limit of that legal effort and the current criminal law no longer provides a meaningful avenue for change," Gruber wrote in her paper, "Rape, Feminism and the War on Crime," published recently in the Washington Law Review by the University of Washington College of Law.

"The lonely voice of women's empowerment cannot and will not be heard above the sound and fury of the criminal system's other messages that reinforce stereotypes, construct racial and socio-economic (structures) and unmoor crime from issues of social justice."

Gruber points to studies of criminal data that shows well-intentioned legal reforms like shield laws and affirmative consent laws do not work. While the number of "stranger rapes" by men who violently attack women has dropped, other, more subtle forms of sexual assault like date rape are still chronic. She said the criminal justice system is unequipped to deal with these subtler forms, though, because their root cause is not so much the deviant mind of a sociopath but the often-accepted social behaviors of men and women.

"Criminal law's structure is to look for right and wrong with no gray area, and to hold individual's accountable for their actions. It doesn't take into consideration larger social issues-such as why the accused rapist aggressively pursued sex, or the perceived passivity of women." Gruber said. "As a result, the criminal justice system struggles to deal with rape because rape is a complex crime loaded with social freight, such as gender inequality and the sexual subordination of women."

On top of this is the way stereotypes of women and rape play out in the jury room. Despite the best efforts of legal reformers, the criminal justice system still sees certain rape victims as somehow complicit in the assault, as if it's a crime for them to have gone out on a date with a rapist.

"As manifested in the law of rape, the complainant may be a "true" victim if she was the object of a violent attack by a monstrous stranger rapist," Gruber wrote. "However, if she exercises any agency in the encounter, such as being on a date, she is disqualified from the category of innocent victim and is instead cast as the agent who precipitated date rape ...., wholly responsible for her mistakes."

Meanwhile, she said the obsession with the criminal justice system has led to such absurdities as a fourth degree sexual assault conviction and compulsory registration as a sex offender for a man who squeezed the back side of a female while they were on a dance floor in a bar.

While this was happening, she said, the equal rights movement in society at large lost steam, in part, because feminists became more interested in criminal law than working for social change.

"Feminism's ability to reshape gender dynamics was lost when criminal law took over," she said, such that "women should not walk the halls of power in the criminal justice system but should rather begin the complicated process of disentangling feminism and its important anti-sexual coercion stance from a hierarchy-reinforcing criminal system that is unable to produce social justice."

To do that, Gruber believes the feminist movement must go back to before the war on crime, when the goal was changing society and not throwing men in jail.

"Activists should turn their attention to investigating methods of addressing rape and gender inequality outside of a system that carries so much political and practical baggage," she said. Social activism, scholarship and political involvement are a start. Pointing out sexist cultural attitudes is needed, too, she said, and women need to change their own attitudes about sexuality, and their attitudes toward men.

"Feminists can counteract the rape-permissive gender norms largely enforced by women instead of relentlessly focusing on the criminality of men," she said. "And feminists must talk to young men about their attitudes as people, not just seek to incarcerate them as criminals."

COMMENT: The following article is from an extreme feminist perspective. It is premised on a worldview I simply cannot agree with: that rape is rampant. That likely will prompt many readers here to dismiss this article out of hand. But it does contain an underlying idea that would serve the interests of the the falsely accused: the author suggests that feminists need to stop looking to the criminal justice system to fight purported date-rape. The professor seems to believe that culturally-learned masculine behavior is responsible for sexually oppressing women, a worldview that is more than a little problematic, and that this socially accepted attitude creates some murky date-rape situations that courts are ill-equipped to handle. I can agree with the murky/ill equipped aspect, but I'd respectfully suggest that gender oppression isn't at the root of it. It seems to be something as simple as guys wanting sex more than women (please don't argue with me on that, it would insult my intelligence), and women being told they can only be empowered when they pretend to want what the guys really do want. This, too often, leads to women's regret, and anger, and feeling used after-the-fact.

But I can find common ground with the professor: if there is to be a cultural debate about what is appropriate sexual behavior, the courts aren't advancing it -- but not for the reasons the professor thinks. From my perspective, the courts are tyrannizing innocent men in the name of protecting women, which is absurd, and wrong, and immoral, at the same time.

A battle against rape has been a big part of America's 30-year war on crime, as feminists and equal rights advocates pushed for prosecution of accused rapists and new laws to protect victims, with the expectation that vigorous enforcement would reduce sexual assault.

But University of Iowa law professor AyaGruber (left) says those efforts have failed and feminism should now distance itself from a criminal justice system she believes is too influenced by the cultural status quo to produce social justice.

"Feminists have reached the limit of that legal effort and the current criminal law no longer provides a meaningful avenue for change," Gruber wrote in her paper, "Rape, Feminism and the War on Crime," published recently in the Washington Law Review by the University of Washington College of Law.

"The lonely voice of women's empowerment cannot and will not be heard above the sound and fury of the criminal system's other messages that reinforce stereotypes, construct racial and socio-economic (structures) and unmoor crime from issues of social justice."

Gruber points to studies of criminal data that shows well-intentioned legal reforms like shield laws and affirmative consent laws do not work. While the number of "stranger rapes" by men who violently attack women has dropped, other, more subtle forms of sexual assault like date rape are still chronic. She said the criminal justice system is unequipped to deal with these subtler forms, though, because their root cause is not so much the deviant mind of a sociopath but the often-accepted social behaviors of men and women.

"Criminal law's structure is to look for right and wrong with no gray area, and to hold individual's accountable for their actions. It doesn't take into consideration larger social issues-such as why the accused rapist aggressively pursued sex, or the perceived passivity of women." Gruber said. "As a result, the criminal justice system struggles to deal with rape because rape is a complex crime loaded with social freight, such as gender inequality and the sexual subordination of women."

On top of this is the way stereotypes of women and rape play out in the jury room. Despite the best efforts of legal reformers, the criminal justice system still sees certain rape victims as somehow complicit in the assault, as if it's a crime for them to have gone out on a date with a rapist.

"As manifested in the law of rape, the complainant may be a "true" victim if she was the object of a violent attack by a monstrous stranger rapist," Gruber wrote. "However, if she exercises any agency in the encounter, such as being on a date, she is disqualified from the category of innocent victim and is instead cast as the agent who precipitated date rape ...., wholly responsible for her mistakes."

Meanwhile, she said the obsession with the criminal justice system has led to such absurdities as a fourth degree sexual assault conviction and compulsory registration as a sex offender for a man who squeezed the back side of a female while they were on a dance floor in a bar.

While this was happening, she said, the equal rights movement in society at large lost steam, in part, because feminists became more interested in criminal law than working for social change.

"Feminism's ability to reshape gender dynamics was lost when criminal law took over," she said, such that "women should not walk the halls of power in the criminal justice system but should rather begin the complicated process of disentangling feminism and its important anti-sexual coercion stance from a hierarchy-reinforcing criminal system that is unable to produce social justice."

To do that, Gruber believes the feminist movement must go back to before the war on crime, when the goal was changing society and not throwing men in jail.

"Activists should turn their attention to investigating methods of addressing rape and gender inequality outside of a system that carries so much political and practical baggage," she said. Social activism, scholarship and political involvement are a start. Pointing out sexist cultural attitudes is needed, too, she said, and women need to change their own attitudes about sexuality, and their attitudes toward men.

"Feminists can counteract the rape-permissive gender norms largely enforced by women instead of relentlessly focusing on the criminality of men," she said. "And feminists must talk to young men about their attitudes as people, not just seek to incarcerate them as criminals."

On Friday 26 March 2010, she was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12-months at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Shortly after 2am on 7 March 2009, Wood contacted police stating two men had raped her near Emmott Way a short time earlier as she walked home following a night out in Oldham.

When GMP receives a report of rape a team of highly trained detectives are sent to investigate. The victim receives support from specially trained officers who offer help and assistance through the entire criminal investigation and beyond.

The victim is also offered the specialist services offered at St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Rape Crisis, Survivors Trust, the Victim Support and Witness Service and Manchester Action on Street Health (M.A.S.H).

Wood however maintained her account during both a video interview with Police officers and a subsequent attendance at St Mary's Hospital, utilising both their medical and counselling services.

The subsequent investigation disproved her account of what happened. She continued to lie to police and only admitted the offence following legal advice.

Detective Sergeant Jason Byrne, from the Sexual Offences Unit at Oldham, said: "Wood repeatedly lied to police, prompting a full and thorough investigation at considerable expense.

"A number of officers spent many hours on this investigation when they could have been better served out in our communities and she has also wasted valuable resources at St Mary's.

"To lie about something as serious as being raped really undermines the awful experiences of genuine victims.

"I want to stress that we treat all reports of rape extremely seriously and I would hope Wood's foolish and reckless actions do not discourage genuine victims from coming forward."

FRS COMMENTS: No mention of why she lied, but, contrary to the rape industry's common statement that rape claims aren't treated seriously by police (despite, for example, having special teams that are specifically designated for investigations of rape), this investigation is but one illustration that law enforcement takes claims like this very seriously.

What is most disturbing, is that she was sentenced to one year of jail, suspended in its entirety. Another insufficient punishment. The only positive is that she is named, so everyone in her area will know just what kind of woman she is. I would like to ask the individual who left the comment that generated the column HERE, how that person can reasonably explain how this is justice?

On Friday 26 March 2010, she was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12-months at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Shortly after 2am on 7 March 2009, Wood contacted police stating two men had raped her near Emmott Way a short time earlier as she walked home following a night out in Oldham.

When GMP receives a report of rape a team of highly trained detectives are sent to investigate. The victim receives support from specially trained officers who offer help and assistance through the entire criminal investigation and beyond.

The victim is also offered the specialist services offered at St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Rape Crisis, Survivors Trust, the Victim Support and Witness Service and Manchester Action on Street Health (M.A.S.H).

Wood however maintained her account during both a video interview with Police officers and a subsequent attendance at St Mary's Hospital, utilising both their medical and counselling services.

The subsequent investigation disproved her account of what happened. She continued to lie to police and only admitted the offence following legal advice.

Detective Sergeant Jason Byrne, from the Sexual Offences Unit at Oldham, said: "Wood repeatedly lied to police, prompting a full and thorough investigation at considerable expense.

"A number of officers spent many hours on this investigation when they could have been better served out in our communities and she has also wasted valuable resources at St Mary's.

"To lie about something as serious as being raped really undermines the awful experiences of genuine victims.

"I want to stress that we treat all reports of rape extremely seriously and I would hope Wood's foolish and reckless actions do not discourage genuine victims from coming forward."

FRS COMMENTS: No mention of why she lied, but, contrary to the rape industry's common statement that rape claims aren't treated seriously by police (despite, for example, having special teams that are specifically designated for investigations of rape), this investigation is but one illustration that law enforcement takes claims like this very seriously.

What is most disturbing, is that she was sentenced to one year of jail, suspended in its entirety. Another insufficient punishment. The only positive is that she is named, so everyone in her area will know just what kind of woman she is. I would like to ask the individual who left the comment that generated the column HERE, how that person can reasonably explain how this is justice?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A former firefighter accused of rape was released from jail late Friday and court officials said the charges will likely be dropped after his accuser changed her story and said the sex was consensual.

Daniel Foote, 54, was charged after police said DNA evidence from the woman who claimed to be raped in August 2006 recently matched that of Foote.

State Attorney Angela Corey told Channel 4 late Friday that the woman has recanted her story.

Foote had lived under house arrest in his Westside home since December when he pleaded guilty to three counts of bribery in an unrelated case. As he was processed into the system on that conviction, a DNA sample was taken and entered into a state database.

When Foote's DNA matched that from the woman who claimed to be raped, he was arrested and held without bond.

On Friday, Judge Virginia Norton signed an order allowing Foote to be processed out of jail on his own recognizance. Once the case can be reviewed, the charges may be dropped.

Channel 4's Jennifer Bauer tried to talk to Foote shortly after he was released from the Duval County Jail to tell his side of the story, but he did not comment.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A former firefighter accused of rape was released from jail late Friday and court officials said the charges will likely be dropped after his accuser changed her story and said the sex was consensual.

Daniel Foote, 54, was charged after police said DNA evidence from the woman who claimed to be raped in August 2006 recently matched that of Foote.

State Attorney Angela Corey told Channel 4 late Friday that the woman has recanted her story.

Foote had lived under house arrest in his Westside home since December when he pleaded guilty to three counts of bribery in an unrelated case. As he was processed into the system on that conviction, a DNA sample was taken and entered into a state database.

When Foote's DNA matched that from the woman who claimed to be raped, he was arrested and held without bond.

On Friday, Judge Virginia Norton signed an order allowing Foote to be processed out of jail on his own recognizance. Once the case can be reviewed, the charges may be dropped.

Channel 4's Jennifer Bauer tried to talk to Foote shortly after he was released from the Duval County Jail to tell his side of the story, but he did not comment.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Connie Chastain is a former staff writer for The Florida Sun, (now the Independent News), a newsweekly published in the late 1990s by former Congressman Joe Scarborough, currently the star of "Morning Joe" on MS-NBC.

"Read Cover to Cover, Never Bound by the Truth" said the little slogan in the top left corner of the cover. Chastain's articles were all nonfiction and ran the gamut from travel to current events and chemtrails to Bigfoot in Dixie.

Born in Georgia, Chastain grew up a preacher's kid in Alabama, attended Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) and married a Louisiana boy.

She currently resides with her husband of 30+ years in L.A. (Lower Alabama -- aka, the Florida panhandle).

The notion that a "rape culture" exists in the United States or the west, or all over Planet Earth, is fairly new to me. Although I've been opposed to feminism since the second wave forced itself on my attention in the 60s and 70s, I didn't always listen to the specifics of feminist claims.

I'm listening now, and from what I'm hearing, I believe that "rape culture" is a knowing construct, as dubious as Mary Koss's infamous "one-in-four" figure -- i.e., her 1985 claim that one in four women are the victims of rape or attempted rape.

When Archivist posted a "Call for Writers" notice several days ago, a couple of ideas occurred to me. Begin my education on what feminists say the rape culture is and see what people working within the rape-culture notion think and write about it, and how such beliefs impact the phenomena of false rape accusations.

What I discover will be covered in weekly essays posted at The False Rape Society blog.

I know what you're thinking. How objective can an anti-feminist be? Well, I'd have to say at least as objective as feminists who trumpet the one-in-four myth, who defend false accusers (i.e., always referred to as "victims") on the basis that women "deserve" the right to behave promiscuously "just like men" without consequences, and who consistently fall back on the claim that patriarchy (i.e., men) are total evil.

It looks like I'm in for quite an education. My thanks to Archivist for the opportunity to post my "enlightenment" here.

Connie Chastain is a former staff writer for The Florida Sun, (now the Independent News), a newsweekly published in the late 1990s by former Congressman Joe Scarborough, currently the star of "Morning Joe" on MS-NBC.

"Read Cover to Cover, Never Bound by the Truth" said the little slogan in the top left corner of the cover. Chastain's articles were all nonfiction and ran the gamut from travel to current events and chemtrails to Bigfoot in Dixie.

Born in Georgia, Chastain grew up a preacher's kid in Alabama, attended Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) and married a Louisiana boy.

She currently resides with her husband of 30+ years in L.A. (Lower Alabama -- aka, the Florida panhandle).

The notion that a "rape culture" exists in the United States or the west, or all over Planet Earth, is fairly new to me. Although I've been opposed to feminism since the second wave forced itself on my attention in the 60s and 70s, I didn't always listen to the specifics of feminist claims.

I'm listening now, and from what I'm hearing, I believe that "rape culture" is a knowing construct, as dubious as Mary Koss's infamous "one-in-four" figure -- i.e., her 1985 claim that one in four women are the victims of rape or attempted rape.

When Archivist posted a "Call for Writers" notice several days ago, a couple of ideas occurred to me. Begin my education on what feminists say the rape culture is and see what people working within the rape-culture notion think and write about it, and how such beliefs impact the phenomena of false rape accusations.

What I discover will be covered in weekly essays posted at The False Rape Society blog.

I know what you're thinking. How objective can an anti-feminist be? Well, I'd have to say at least as objective as feminists who trumpet the one-in-four myth, who defend false accusers (i.e., always referred to as "victims") on the basis that women "deserve" the right to behave promiscuously "just like men" without consequences, and who consistently fall back on the claim that patriarchy (i.e., men) are total evil.

It looks like I'm in for quite an education. My thanks to Archivist for the opportunity to post my "enlightenment" here.

Through a collaboration with other prominent bloggers, we've started False Rape Strike Force because it's time to act to change the climate for the presumptively innocent who, too often, were falsely accused. Our first action alert has been posted: Points With Purpose -- we are urging everyone contact the artist and voice our disapproval, in a civil and reasonable manner, for fomenting a culture where rape accusers are automatically believed. Thank you.

Through a collaboration with other prominent bloggers, we've started False Rape Strike Force because it's time to act to change the climate for the presumptively innocent who, too often, were falsely accused. Our first action alert has been posted: Points With Purpose -- we are urging everyone contact the artist and voice our disapproval, in a civil and reasonable manner, for fomenting a culture where rape accusers are automatically believed. Thank you.

THE mother of a young man who was the victim of a bogus rape claim has told of her “living hell” while her innocent son was locked up for a year.

Tearful Lindsay Duncan from Gartness in Airdrie suffered the torment of seeing her boy’s life being threatened when he was behind bars.

For 12 long months, as 22-year-old Jason was remanded in Addiewell and Barlinnie jails, his mother went through a nightmare. It was as if she had been in prison with him.

Lindsay knew he had committed no crime and was bolstered by the overwhelming support of friends and work colleagues.

But the long wait for his innocence to be proved in a court of law was almost unbearable, especially as she knew what Jason was going through behind bars.

“It was a living nightmare to start with and it just got worse and worse,” she told the Advertiser. “He was taken to Addiewell and had boiling water thrown over him and razor blades thrown at him. They tried to set him on fire.

“They moved him to Barlinnie and I was horrified. It’s a nightmare to see your son in a place like that.

“He was put in a sex offenders unit and in some ways he was safer there, but he was in with some terrible people.”

Jason was falsely accused – along with pal Chris Hoey – of raping a woman at knifepoint in March 2009.

At a High Court trial in Falkirk last month a jury took just one hour to find the pair not guilty.

Lindsay, who was in court that day, felt a mixture of relief and joy when she heard the verdict and ran to cuddle her son and lead him from court just seconds after the judge told him he was free to go.

It was a long journey from the day the nightmare began to unfold for both Jason and Chris, whose story we told last month.

Lindsay recalled the moments it all started, when police came to her home and arrested Jason.

“It was horrendous. It was quarter past three and the police came to the door and grabbed him and put him up against the wall. There was about five of them. They took him away and he had no shoes on. They were completely rude to me and wouldn’t answer any questions and then eventually said they were going to charge him with rape.

“It was unbelievable. I thought ‘they’ve got the wrong person’. It was surreal.”

With Jason locked up and charged with such a serious offence, Lindsay is sure some people thought the worst.

But the support of family, friends and colleagues in the HR department of call centre firm beCogent helped her get through it.

“My mum phoned everybody she knew to tell them what was going on and they were all quite supportive. I had nothing but absolute support, especially from my colleagues at work. I am quite sure some people jumped to conclusions, but people who know Jason knew he couldn’t have done that.”

Lindsay is still furious at the woman who put her son through such an ordeal. She would now like to do something to help change the law to try to stop false allegations of rape getting to court.

“There is still a great deal of anger,” Lindsay admitted. “I think she is the lowest of the low and she is doing genuine rape victims no favours whatsoever.

“It is hard enough for women who have genuinely been raped to have the confidence to come forward.“I want to do something that will help make sure other mothers don’t have to go through what I have gone through.

“I am not sure what I can do, but I would back calls for the woman to be named if the man is found not guilty. That would be a start.”

THE mother of a young man who was the victim of a bogus rape claim has told of her “living hell” while her innocent son was locked up for a year.

Tearful Lindsay Duncan from Gartness in Airdrie suffered the torment of seeing her boy’s life being threatened when he was behind bars.

For 12 long months, as 22-year-old Jason was remanded in Addiewell and Barlinnie jails, his mother went through a nightmare. It was as if she had been in prison with him.

Lindsay knew he had committed no crime and was bolstered by the overwhelming support of friends and work colleagues.

But the long wait for his innocence to be proved in a court of law was almost unbearable, especially as she knew what Jason was going through behind bars.

“It was a living nightmare to start with and it just got worse and worse,” she told the Advertiser. “He was taken to Addiewell and had boiling water thrown over him and razor blades thrown at him. They tried to set him on fire.

“They moved him to Barlinnie and I was horrified. It’s a nightmare to see your son in a place like that.

“He was put in a sex offenders unit and in some ways he was safer there, but he was in with some terrible people.”

Jason was falsely accused – along with pal Chris Hoey – of raping a woman at knifepoint in March 2009.

At a High Court trial in Falkirk last month a jury took just one hour to find the pair not guilty.

Lindsay, who was in court that day, felt a mixture of relief and joy when she heard the verdict and ran to cuddle her son and lead him from court just seconds after the judge told him he was free to go.

It was a long journey from the day the nightmare began to unfold for both Jason and Chris, whose story we told last month.

Lindsay recalled the moments it all started, when police came to her home and arrested Jason.

“It was horrendous. It was quarter past three and the police came to the door and grabbed him and put him up against the wall. There was about five of them. They took him away and he had no shoes on. They were completely rude to me and wouldn’t answer any questions and then eventually said they were going to charge him with rape.

“It was unbelievable. I thought ‘they’ve got the wrong person’. It was surreal.”

With Jason locked up and charged with such a serious offence, Lindsay is sure some people thought the worst.

But the support of family, friends and colleagues in the HR department of call centre firm beCogent helped her get through it.

“My mum phoned everybody she knew to tell them what was going on and they were all quite supportive. I had nothing but absolute support, especially from my colleagues at work. I am quite sure some people jumped to conclusions, but people who know Jason knew he couldn’t have done that.”

Lindsay is still furious at the woman who put her son through such an ordeal. She would now like to do something to help change the law to try to stop false allegations of rape getting to court.

“There is still a great deal of anger,” Lindsay admitted. “I think she is the lowest of the low and she is doing genuine rape victims no favours whatsoever.

“It is hard enough for women who have genuinely been raped to have the confidence to come forward.
“I want to do something that will help make sure other mothers don’t have to go through what I have gone through.

“I am not sure what I can do, but I would back calls for the woman to be named if the man is found not guilty. That would be a start.”

A website called Points With Purpose is run by David Ilan, an artist who creates drawings using only dots. He is currently involved in a project that will assign one dot to "a real person who has been raped or sexually abused." His website invites persons who say they've been raped or sexually abused to share their stories with him. "I add one dot for every person who joins until the drawing is complete. The final drawing will be of a woman looking confident, proud and beautiful. By joining the project, thousands of people with a shared tragic experience will work together to form a work of art meant to show others who go through similar experiences that they too can feel confident, proud and beautiful again."

Raising awareness about rape, and false rape claims, is a laudatory effort. Mr. Ilan's seeks to raise awareness only about rape (he apparently believes that false rape claims are exceedingly rare), by presenting a startling picture that he obviously hopes will illustrate that rape is a widespread problem.

While Mr. Ilan's purpose is to make a point with his art, the problem is that accepting, without question, the word of anyone who says she was raped (and assigning that assertion a dot on the picture) is scarcely a reliable or scientific way to present a picture of how widespread the rape problem is.

For every rape claim reported, as we've illustrated on this site time and time again, only a relatively small percentage can be definitively called "rape." This is beyond dispute. We know that some claims reported (the numbers vary depending on the study) are outright false. And between the claims we are reasonably certain were actual rapes, and the ones we are reasonably certain were false claims, is a vast gray area consisting of a group of claims that cannot properly be classified as "rapes" -- because we just don't know. That's the nature of a rape claim. The claims in this vast gray middle area often suffer from evidentiary infirmities. For example, for some such claims, while the claimant herself might think a rape occurred, her outward manifestations of assent did not match her subjective disinclination to engage in sex, so it wasn't rape -- legally, or any other way. Importantly, if we just took the word of the accusers, we would call each of those claims actual "rapes" -- but that wouldn't be accurate, or just.

There is no reason to believe that claims made to Mr. Ilan in connection with his art project would be any more reliable than the ones made to the police.

It is troublesome that Mr. Ilan not only thinks it's proper to accept the word of the accuser for his art, he publicly advocates it beyond his art. He spoke at a campus rally supporting women's rights yesterday: "Ilan also urged spectators to believe someone when they share their violent experience saying that only two percent of accusations are false. 'If someone says ‘I was raped,’ believe them,' Ilan said."

Every human being who claims he or she was raped should be treated with dignity, and the claim should be investigated with objectivity. But Mr. Ilan's admonition to automatically believe the accuser is unjust, by any measure, because it means that we must automatically believe that the man or boy she accused is a rapist. That is the only logical outcome of the knee jerk assumption Mr. Ilan urges.

The knee jerk assumption of guilt based on nothing more than the accusation of a lone accuser has caused disastrous results for countless innocent men and boys throughout history, as detailed on this site. Persons who advocate an assumption of guilt would do well to study the real life cases, and the objective studies, we cite to on this website because it would give them a greater appreciation about how their assumptions victimize innocent people. Rape lies have caused innocent men and boys to be killed and to kill themselves (from The Scottsboro Boys to modern day, even a story we reported last week); to be incarcerated often longer than their false accusers are legally permitted to be imprisoned when their lies are finally brought to light; to lose their good names, their jobs, their businesses, their life's savings, their wives, and their girlfriends; to be beaten, to be chased, to be spat upon, and to be looked upon with suspicion long after they are cleared of wrongdoing. It is often impossible for the falsely accused to ever obtain good employment once the lie hits the news: for the rest of his life, a falsely accused man will have prospective employers Googling his name and finding the horrid accusation. Virtually every falsely accused male will be affected by his ordeal. Many develop emotional problems that will plague them for the rest oft their lives; most will not be able to trust women, for at least a time and sometimes forever.

If you'd like examples of any of the above, spend a couple of weeks scrolling through this site -- you'll find plenty. Everything mentioned in the paragraph above is from a recent false rape case.

As for Mr. Ilan's assertion that only two percent of accusations are false, this canard was long ago debunked, and it is astounding that it is still repeated by sexual assault counselors and others. See, e.g., E. Greer, The Truth Behind Legal Dominance Feminism's 'Two Percent False Rape Claim' Figure, 33 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 947, a scholarly law review article that painstakingly traced the two percent canard to its unreliable source. See also, "Until Proven Innocent," the widely praised (praised even by the New York Times, which the book skewers -- as well as almost every other major U.S. news source) and painstaking study of the Duke Lacrosse non-rape case. Authors Stuart Taylor and Professor K.C. Johnson explain that "[t]he standard assertion by feminists that only 2 percent" or sexual assault claims "are false, which traces to Susan Brownmiller's 1975 book 'Against Our Will,' is without empirical foundation and belied by a wealth of empirical data." (Page 374.)

The fact is, every impartial, objective study ever conducted on the subject shows false rape claims are a significant problem. We've detailed these studies time and time again on this site.

The entire rape milieu has become so terribly gender-politicized that even good faith efforts to raise awareness about rape often unwittingly denigrate the victimization of countless men, boys, and yes, even some women, by insisting that false accusations of rape are essentially a myth. In seeking to raise awareness about rape, it is wholly unnecessary to insist false rape claims are a myth. We can all work to eradicate both rape and false rape claims.

But those who insist that we should automatically believe the accuser foment the same kind of rape hysteria that has been responsible for innumerable lynchings and other horrors note above. We implore Mr. Ilan and others like him to show sensitivity to the presumed innocent and their families, by not suggesting that the trial should be over even before it has begun.